Could President Trump lose the oil war?
In a cover story for The Spectator that appeared just after Saudi Arabia launched an oil war against Russia in March, I wrote: 'One wonders how Donald Trump — who hates personal disloyalty more than anything — will react when he wakes up to the fact that the Saudi leader he has stuck with through thick and thin is now out to destroy the domestic industry Trump is most proud of.' Well, now we know. By the first week of April, Trump was so concerned about the impact of dramatically lower prices on the domestic fracking industry that he called the Saudi leaders and gave them a stark ultimatum. Unless they pressured OPEC members to cut oil production, he would be powerless to stop lawmakers from passing legislation to withdraw US troops from the kingdom.
